Can Crohn’s Affect Your Sleep? Tips for Better Rest

Can Crohn’s Actually Affect Your Sleep?

Anyone who has Crohn’s can relate to the 3 am emergency bathroom waddle. I like to call this the “fire alarm” poop. The reason I call it the fire alarm poop is because of the feeling it gives you. Suddenly you wake up with a heart rate of 175 bpm and the only thought in your head is “If I don’t make it out of this room in the next 5 seconds, something very bad is going to happen.”

The truth is Crohn’s patients can experience a wide range of symptoms that contribute to poor sleep quality. The symptoms experienced with Crohn’s can lead to poor sleep quality, and poor sleep can exacerbate Crohn’s symptoms which leads to even worse sleep. It can be a cruel vicious cycle, but understanding why this is happening can help patients take matters into their own hands and improve their own sleep quality.

What Does Science Say?

According to the Journal of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, 77% of Crohn’s and other IBD patients report poor sleep quality. There are many contributing factors to poor sleep quality, including mental state, increased inflammation, use of pain medication and bathroom frequency.

Addressing poor sleep is crucial for IBD patients because a drop in sleep quality is well known to increase inflammation. Research shows that people with inconsistent sleep schedules have increased levels of cytokines, interleukin-6, and C-reactive proteins (common inflammatory markers.) While inflammation serves as an important defense mechanism for the body to promote healing, persistent inflammation has many negative impacts on the body, as all IBD patients know full well.

Poor sleep is also a risk for patients who are in active remission. Even while in remission, patients who report a disturbance in sleep habits see a twofold increase in disease relapse within 6 months.

How It Affects You

Persistent inflammation and lack of sleep can show itself in many different forms. These symptoms include: pain, swelling, redness, feelings of unease, and can cause the brain to release chemicals that cause feelings of fatigue and brain fog. Sleep is the body’s way to heal and repair itself, so when we lack proper sleep, we wake up feeling fatigue, anxious inflamed and stressed out.

Sleep is crucial for IBD patients to heal and reset their brains and be prepared for the symptoms they experience throughout the day. That is why it can feel very frustrating and hopeless being up all night fighting off symptoms, only to wake up feeling worse in the morning.

Tips To Improve Your Sleep With Crohn’s

There is hope, as there are science backed ways to help improve sleep. IBD patients are at a disadvantage as they often experience underlying symptoms, but here are 5 ways that sleep quality can be imporved

Consistency

A consistent sleep schedule is extremely important for regulating the body’s internal clock, otherwise known as the circadian rhythm. Setting a consistent time to get ready for bed and also a consistent time to begin your day is crucial. This is important for overall health because staying in circadian rhythm is crucial for hormone release, appetite, digestion, temperature control and ability to allow your body to be ready for sleep.

Activity

Activity and exercise can be very difficult while in a flare, but even very minor forms of exercise can greatly improve sleep quality. Exercise is known to reduce stress hormones like cortisol, release good hormones like endorphins, regulate body temperature, and has many other positive benefits that will contribute to sleep quality.

When you’re in a particularly rough flare, and you can’t even think about getting up to go for a walk, there are other things that you can do to replicate the effects of exercise. Research shows that cold plunges or showers promote the body’s release of hormones like dopamine, endorphins, and melatonin which all help contribute to good sleep.

Food and Drink

It is no surprise that the food and drink that you put into your body have a huge impact on what your mood, hormones and overall health. Here are some foods and drinks that help promote quality sleep:

Cherries

Almonds

Bananas

Yogurt

Oatmeal

Almond Milk

Chamomile Tea

Cherry Juice

Timing of eating and drinking is also important. It is recommended to stop eating 2-3 hours before bed to allow your body time for proper digestion. It is also recommended to stop drinking caffeine 6-8 hours before bedtime.

The Mind

Sleeping is essentially your body’s way of healing your body and resetting your brain for the next day. Poor mental health can have huge impacts on quality of sleep, and ability to fall asleep. Racing thoughts, negative thoughts, and anxiety are all common in people who have trouble falling asleep.

Meditation is one of the best ways to regulate mood and stress throughout the day. There are many free guided mediations online that you can use that will only take about 10 minutes. It only takes a few minutes before bed, but the results and relief you will feel will help unwind from the stresses of the day and jumpstart your mind to get ready for sleep.

Positions

Depending on your symptoms, certain sleeping positions can help or hurt your quality of sleep. Here is a cool graphic from Healthline that describes each position.